As time passes, it will seem more and more convenient to historians that the last decade ended so punctually—we rang in 2020 just as COVID was gaining traction, two months before it precipitated an unprecedented, jarring global disruption.
The antitech sentiment of 2016-2019 did not fade away, it's one of the few bipartisan movements happening in American policy both state and federal, and especially prolific in Europe. I can't make predictions on how far the US will actually go on antitech and antitrust stuff they're building now, nor what form a backlash would occur, but I expect one reason the discussion has faded from culture is because everyone took it into DM.
I can't be the only person noticing a surge of Discord invites. In those groups the conversations are far more nuanced but also more narrow. This feels productive, to me, at this stage. Antitech thinkers can do more than just post an angry Tweet, and regular Twitter users won't get as riled up by the Tweet. The messages on the "antitech discord group" gets interested parties coordinated, instead of stochastic meme making.
There's, uh, also the chance that stronger moderation policies and groups splitting off to create their own platforms has actually improved the platforms as intended. For some reason the concept that it might work even a little bit is dismissed as an option.
And lastly I think the pandemic really did get people off their screens and more outside and analog than they were previously, and that reduces irritability.
Yeah - I know these discussions are still happening. But taking the conversations into DMs/Discord and away from the internet's public-facing forums is part of what I'm talking about. That kind of criticism becomes more of a niche activity and is less present in the mainstream discourse, which I think has largely moved on to other topics as I described in the post.
You're probably right that more people have quit platforms like Facebook which in a way is a solution to some of the problems, but I wouldn't equate that with Facebook itself getting better (similar to smoking - fewer people smoke cigarettes now which is healthier for the people who don't smoke, but cigarettes themselves are still just as unhealthy).
I don't think "highly visible in public" is the same thing as mainstream though. I think that's one of the reasons people assign more power to social media than they should.
"In those groups the conversations are far more nuanced but also more narrow. This feels productive, to me, at this stage. "
It feels more productive to me as well-- if for no other reason than I'm intentionally finding/entering discussions that I'm interested in, as opposed to have to wade through a torrent of God-knows-what on FB to get there.
From this observer's perch, I think a LOT of people have made this same shift in their content diet. Moves to Discord, ditching FB for platforms like Substack, and other forms of long-tail social media. We're (collectively) online as much as ever; we've just left the grievance merchants behind for greener online pastures.
Yup - definitely agree with this. I barely know anyone on FB anymore, and it seems like people are gradually bailing on even Instagram/Twitter as well. I'm not the biggest Discord user but I see a ton of the social media activity moving there as well.
The antitech sentiment of 2016-2019 did not fade away, it's one of the few bipartisan movements happening in American policy both state and federal, and especially prolific in Europe. I can't make predictions on how far the US will actually go on antitech and antitrust stuff they're building now, nor what form a backlash would occur, but I expect one reason the discussion has faded from culture is because everyone took it into DM.
I can't be the only person noticing a surge of Discord invites. In those groups the conversations are far more nuanced but also more narrow. This feels productive, to me, at this stage. Antitech thinkers can do more than just post an angry Tweet, and regular Twitter users won't get as riled up by the Tweet. The messages on the "antitech discord group" gets interested parties coordinated, instead of stochastic meme making.
There's, uh, also the chance that stronger moderation policies and groups splitting off to create their own platforms has actually improved the platforms as intended. For some reason the concept that it might work even a little bit is dismissed as an option.
And lastly I think the pandemic really did get people off their screens and more outside and analog than they were previously, and that reduces irritability.
Yeah - I know these discussions are still happening. But taking the conversations into DMs/Discord and away from the internet's public-facing forums is part of what I'm talking about. That kind of criticism becomes more of a niche activity and is less present in the mainstream discourse, which I think has largely moved on to other topics as I described in the post.
You're probably right that more people have quit platforms like Facebook which in a way is a solution to some of the problems, but I wouldn't equate that with Facebook itself getting better (similar to smoking - fewer people smoke cigarettes now which is healthier for the people who don't smoke, but cigarettes themselves are still just as unhealthy).
I'll take the cigarette point.
I don't think "highly visible in public" is the same thing as mainstream though. I think that's one of the reasons people assign more power to social media than they should.
"In those groups the conversations are far more nuanced but also more narrow. This feels productive, to me, at this stage. "
It feels more productive to me as well-- if for no other reason than I'm intentionally finding/entering discussions that I'm interested in, as opposed to have to wade through a torrent of God-knows-what on FB to get there.
From this observer's perch, I think a LOT of people have made this same shift in their content diet. Moves to Discord, ditching FB for platforms like Substack, and other forms of long-tail social media. We're (collectively) online as much as ever; we've just left the grievance merchants behind for greener online pastures.
Yup - definitely agree with this. I barely know anyone on FB anymore, and it seems like people are gradually bailing on even Instagram/Twitter as well. I'm not the biggest Discord user but I see a ton of the social media activity moving there as well.